Marc Holzer

Promoting the Utilization of Performance Measures in Public Organizations: An Empirical Study of Factors Affecting Adoption and Implementation

Despite its appeal for improving government, many state and local governments have not developed performance-measurement systems, and even fewer use these systems to improve decision making. This study examines the factors that affect the utilization of performance measurement, based on the results of a national survey of state and local government officials. The goals of the study were to provide better information on the patterns of usage of performance measurement and to use this information to develop an elaborated model of the factors presumed to affect utilization. Using distinctions from the policy and evaluation literature, hypotheses were tested and confirmed: Policy adoption is driven more heavily by factors from rational and technocratic theory, whereas actual implementation is influenced by factors addressed by political and cultural considerations.

Performance Measurement and Improvement: an Assessment of the State of the Art

This article attempts to show the frontier of government performance measurement. First, it introduces the sophisticated and effective strategies that public agencies have utilized for performance measurement within a comprehensive approach to productivity improvement. Multiple measures have been developed to improve a variety of management functions such as goal-setting and resource allocation. The article then outlines the cutting edge of performance measurement. Based on a number of case studies throughout the United States, this article discusses the state of the art in three performance areas: citizen-driven government performance, use of citizen surveys and performance reporting. Finally, the article concludes that the essential question in the future is how government can move to full adoption and implementation of citizen-driven, data-driven decision-making.

Digital Government Worldwide: A e-Government Assessment of Municipal Web Sites

This article evaluates the current practice of digital government in large municipalities worldwide. The study assesses 84 cities from around the world that use a five-stage e-government framework. Our research and methodology goes beyond previous research by utilizing 92 measures that were translated into the native language of each city. In addition, the assessment of each municipal web site was conducted by a native speaker of the municipality’s language between June and October of 2003. We reviewed relevant e-government literature for evaluating Web sites nationally and internationally, and discussed our sample selection, methodology, theoretical framework, findings, and recommendations. Our results indicate that Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, and Shanghai are the top five large cities for providing digital government opportunities to citizens online. Our research also suggests a difference in the digital government capabilities among the 30 developed nations belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and lesser developed (non-OECD) nations.

Public performance measurement

Purpose – This paper seeks to present an overview of the state‐of‐the‐art of public performance measurement in the USA. The growing degree of sophistication of performance measurement tools is highlighted as well as some of the current challenges associated with implementing meaningful performance measurement systems. More importantly, models where citizens participate directly in the process of assessing and measuring the performance of government are introduced. Overall, this article aims to address the following questions: what is the state‐of‐the‐art of public performance measurement? How are citizens adding meaning to the performance measurement process? Design/methodology/approach – This paper offers a literature review that assesses the state of practice of performance measurement as a tool for management. In addition to highlighting the value of this management tool, models of citizen‐driven performance measurement are offered as strategies for measuring what matters to citizens. Findings – While there are challenges associated with implementing systems of performance measurement, evidence shows that including citizens in the process adds value to the overall process. Originality/value – This paper assesses the state‐of‐the‐art and utility of public performance measurement. Strategies and models are offered to bridge the interests of public managers and citizens in the process. These approaches, or modified versions, can be adopted and implemented in many contexts and may serve as useful tools for the international community.

Public productivity handbook

Anyone hoping to improve teamwork, performance, and budgeting, training, and evaluation programs in their organization should look no further. Completely revised, Public Productivity Handbook, Second Edition defines the role of leadership, dimensions of employee commitment, and multiple employee-organization based relationships for effective internal and external connections. Its coverage of new and systematic management approaches and well-defined measurement systems provides guidance on correct utilization of human resources that ensure improvements in productivity and performance. The authors discuss such topics as citizen-driven government and performance, public sector values and productivity, privatization, and productivity barriers in the public sector.

Merit Pay, Performance Targeting, and Productivity

Most merit pay plans have limited ability to motivate employees and to enhance productivity. This article suggests that performance targeting, a concept that is related to performance appraisal but different from it, may be a more promising approach to productivity enhancement. The article illuminates some of the main shortfalls of expectancy theory on which many merit pay plans are based and points out some of the possible problems with performance appraisal. The article sug gests that the productivity enhancement effort must include a deliberate effort to prevent the crea tion of demotivators and a search for a better understanding of what makes the individual employee tick. It cautions managers to consider the propositions that are provided by the equity and needs theories of motivation in developing programs to boost productivity.

The impact of government form on e-participation: A study of New Jersey municipalities

Abstract During the past two decades, governments have started to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to offer a new forum for citizen involvement known as e-participation. The rapid development of e-participation has been attracting attention from many researchers. While a growing body of research has explored various factors impacting e-participation, few studies have examined the influence of government structures on the e-participation opportunities that jurisdictions offer users. To fill the research gap and begin investigating this relationship, we use data from 97 New Jersey municipalities to analyze the impact on e-participation of three local government structures: mayor-council, council-manager, and township. The results show that municipalities with the mayor-council form of government are more likely to have higher levels of e-participation offerings. We argue that the role of an elected executive in this structure facilitates the will to provide greater opportunities for citizens to participate online.

Digital Governance Worldwide: A Longitudinal Assessment of Municipal Web Sites

This article highlights the research findings of a digital governance survey conducted in the fall of 2005. The study replicates a 2003 survey of large municipalities worldwide. This longitudinal assessment, based on the Rutgers-SKKU E-Governance Performance Index, focused on the evaluation of current practices in government, with emphasis on the evaluation of each Web site in terms of digital governance. Specifically, we analyzed security, usability, content of Web sites, the type of online services currently being offered, and citizen response and participation through Web sites established by city governments. Based on the 2005 evaluation of 81 cities, Seoul, New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Sydney represent the highest performing cities in digital governance. There were only slight changes in the top five cities when compared to the 2003 study. Moreover, there continues to be a divide in terms of digital governance throughout the world among the 30 developed nations belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD member nations.

Measurement as a means of accountability

Independent scrutiny can help empower bureaucracys critics so that they might question “government as usual” tendencies, and therefore pressure governments to produce services as advertised. Our premise is that in order to honestly share access to decisions bureaucracies must share access to the information necessary to make those decisions. In particular, more pointed and sophisticated external scrutiny may embarrass management into fully applying the tools it now has available, but often fails to utilise. Data-based dialogues can make government more responsive and responsible in its use of available resources, that is, more productive and more accountable.

Public Service: Problems, Professionalism, and Policy Recommendations

The impetus for the assessment of the public service in this issue is a disturbing fact: Our society seems to have an insatiable appetite for public services, yet it is ceaseless in its criticism for those who provide those services. Such criticism seems increasingly frequent from citizens in a variety of roles: taxpayers, voters, politicians, service consumers, corporate executives, reporters, academics, writers, artists, and so on. Although many of the complaints have face validity, they pose disturbing contradictions. In particular, the very citizens who ask public organizations to address societys most difficult problems-problems that the private sector has in large part abandoned-also hold that our public service is not capable of handling such difficult tasks. Although these people demand bureaucratic rules, bureaucratic objectivity, and bureaucratic fairness from government, they criticize public servants for being unnecessarily rigid bureaucrats. And, although they demand that the public sector respond to considerations of equity and compassion, not just of efficiency and profitabilitythe major criteria for success in the private sector-they charge that government is unbusinesslike or inefficient. In sum, our society has constructed an image of public servants as bumbling bureaucrats entangled